1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the invention relate to a method and an apparatus for recognizing handwritten information written in various languages. More particularly, aspects of the invention allow a user to easily enter handwritten information in various languages, and having the handwritten information associated with a language for recognition purposes.
2. Description of Related Art
People often rely on graphical representations more than textual representations of information. They would rather look at a picture than a block of text that may be equivalent to the picture. For instance, a home owner may cut out pictures from magazines to show contractors exactly what is desired when remodeling a kitchen or bathroom. Textual descriptions of the same material often fall short. The tool that the home owner may use is no more complex than a pair of scissors.
In the computing world, however, attempting to capture and convey the identical content is cumbersome. Typical computer systems do not provide an easy interface for capturing and conveying graphically intensive content. Rather, they are optimized for capturing and rendering text. For instance, typical computer systems, especially computer systems using graphical user interface (GUI) systems, such as Microsoft WINDOWS, are optimized for accepting user input from one or more discrete input devices such as a keyboard for entering text, and a pointing device such as a mouse with one or more buttons for driving the user interface.
Handwritten information received into a computer may be used in a variety of ways. For example, the handwritten information may remain as only handwritten information. Also, the handwritten information may be processed by a handwriting recognition engine and the information replaced by text from the handwriting recognition engine. Finally, the handwritten information may remain displayed to a user and the results of the handwriting recognition engine associated with the handwritten information (being displayed in conjunction with the handwriting information or hidden from the user, but still being associated with the handwriting information).
A variety of handwritten information recognizers exist (English, French, German, and the like). After selecting a default language (and associated handwritten information recognizer), a user may write in the default language and have the handwritten information processed by a default recognizer to return text in the default language. While this approach is fine for most uses, a significant portion of the world speaks more than one language. In these situations, users may be writing in a first language yet find some concepts more easily expressed in a second language. A resulting line of handwritten notes may have some words in the first language, some words in the second language, and yet more words in the first language. While the user may easily be able to discern what concepts he was writing at the time, the recognition engine may have a significantly more difficult time. Thus, the user who wishes the freedom to express concepts in a variety of languages is at a disadvantage. Further, the input environment should be conducive to writing in various languages. A better solution is needed.